Steamy romance, great female hero excuse overstuffed story.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 14+?
Any Positive Content?
Sex, Romance & Nudity
a lot
A married couple has sex, with some description of oral sex, undressing, hips moving, and climax that are more flowery than frank. Early on, they do have a frank discussion about their sex life and whether they should seek pleasure elsewhere considering neither wanted the marriage. Mentions of the main character's trysts as a school girl.
Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.
The death of a major character is mourned heavily. A poisoning leaves a character weak and near death, spitting blood with mouth sores. A man is stabbed in the leg and knocked out. Characters have visions of violence, including the death of their loved ones.
Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.
Blythe is courageous, sacrificing everything to protect her father, including her happiness and her health. She also shows curiosity and joy in exploring the world. Her father, Elijah Hawthorne, shows incredible empathy, supporting his daughter in her times of need.
Positive Messages
some
The importance of family and making peace with the past because new opportunities await. Reminders that death is a natural part of the life cycle and that mourning a death can look different for everyone.
Diverse Representations
a little
Blythe briefly mentions kissing boys and a girl in her school days. Signa is an orphan with a chosen family.
A reminder of what the expectations were of young married society women in the 1800s: to always appear in public with their husbands or expect rumors to spread, just as rumors spread if you are not pregnant right away.
Parents Need to Know
Parents need to know that Wisteria is the third book in the Belladonna dark romance-fantasy trilogy by Adalyn Grace (All the Stars and Teeth). Book 3 follows the rocky relationship between Blythe and Aris, also known as Fate, after they are forced to marry in a magically binding bargain meant to save Blythe's father. As in Book 2, Foxglove, sexual content is mature, but in this book the couple is already married. Also, the descriptions of oral sex, moving hips, and climax are more flowery than frank. A major character dies and is heavily mourned, and a poisoning leaves a character weak and near death, spitting blood with mouth sores. Main character Blythe is admirable for her courage, sacrificing everything to protect others. Her father, Elijah, also shows incredible empathy in Blythe's time of need.
In WISTERIA: BELLADONNA Blythe goes through with her marriage to Aris, otherwise known as Fate, in a bargain to save her father, Elijah. It's a union neither wants, made worse by magic rings they wear that prevent them from escaping each other at his estate, Wisteria Gardens. At first Aris makes Blythe's life miserable, giving her a slab of rock for a bed and no heat in winter, but she refuses to complain. She's otherwise occupied in the house, puzzling over strange spirit visitations and writing letters to her worried father. It's clear that Elijah sees through her happy prose when he insists on an impromptu visit. Uh-oh. Elijah was told that Aris is not only a prince, but the prince of a made-up land named Verena. Aris will need to weave all his Fate magic to impress his new father-in-law and keep up the lie. And he'll need to start treating Blythe like a princess instead of a thorn in his side.
This delectable poison-themed series is bursting with fanciful magic, steamy romance, and a few too many chaotic supernatural twists. Well, perhaps it doesn't help that so many supernatural characters impact the story: Fate, Death, Life (or the memory of), and a nasty late-in-story surprise. The real heart of Wisteria is in the growing affection between Aris/Fate and Blythe. All else should build around this, and it does for a time. Real magic happens when the two create palaces and travel together after all their bickering and disdain for each other. But from there, the story weaves in too much, and too many questions pile up and need to be answered in the final third of the book. How do the wedding rings work? How do Blythe's new powers work? Who killed Blythe's cousin's mother? Who's breaking into Blythe's father's gentleman's club? Who's haunting Wisteria Gardens and why? It's a maze of a trek to the end that includes the added drama of "please don't tell this or that secret because it will break their hearts," but fans of the series will still be satisfied in the end. Why? Because who hasn't been rooting for the resilient, determined, and independent Blythe since they met her in Book 1?
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about Blythe's relationship with her father, Elijah, in Wisteria. How do they show empathy for each other? Have you read any other fantasy books with such a strong bond between father and daughter?
Aris and Blythe's marriage gets off to a rocky start. How does Blythe's curiosity about the world help mend their relationship? Is curiosity a trait you admire in others?
Which female hero in this series do you like better: Blythe or Signa? Which of the deities in this story would you like to be, Death, Fate, Life, or the immortal who has it in for Blythe?
Available on:
Audiobook (unabridged), Hardback, iBooks, Kindle
Last updated:
August 21, 2024
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Common Sense Media's unbiased ratings are created by expert reviewers and aren't influenced by the product's creators or by any of our funders, affiliates, or partners.
By Carrie R. Wheadon
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